Friday, February 26, 2010

Not that we actually need more proof, of course, but hey, why not share anyway.

I recently upgraded my laptop (Finally! Woot!). The new one came with Windows 7, which is kind of hard getting used to after having WindowsXP for so long. The changes aren't huge, but they're enough so you notice. I like it it, don't get me wrong, I'm just still feeling my way around it.

One of the things Windows7 has that I love is Sticky Notes. It's like a virtual post-it, right there on your desktop. I don't know why it tickles me so much, but it does. I haven't really used it much yet, but I plan to. I didn't tell MM about the sticky notes because I forgot. I meant to tell him, but you know how it goes.

MM and I are getting ready to go on vacation and I keep telling him things he needs to remind me about later. "Don't let me forget the phone chargers." "Remind me later to make a note for Aunt B about TG's friend coming over." etc, etc. One of the big ones I didn't want to forget is TG's PSATs. She's taking them next Saturday and I was afraid I'd space it out. I must have asked MM 5x to remind me.

The other night I got a migraine and went to bed early (around 8:30). When I got up the next morning there was a Sticky Note on my computer from MM that said, "Make list for Aunt B w/ TG's PSATs." Because I hadn't told MM about the Sticky Note feature and I know what a complete noob he can be about tech stuff, I was totally impressed. Love kind of welled up inside me and I sent MM a text:

I love you.

A few minutes later:

I love you too. But what did you do? Or not do as the case may be.

Me: I can't just love you?

Him: No. You can't. We're long past the "i love you more, no i love you more" stage. So what did you do.

Me: Jeez, I didn't do anything. i just love you.

Him: Uh huh. So really, what did you do.

Me: I didn't do anything! I just love you. Though that is rapidly changing with these texts.

Him: Oh. Well then I love you too. But I'm still skeptical.

Me: OMG! I just saw the sticky note you left on my computer and I wanted to tell you I love you. That's it. Cripes.

Him: See! I knew it was something. I love you too, Pook-a-loo.

You can't even tell a guy you love him without him getting all skeptical. He's such a jerkyface!

Thursday, February 25, 2010

I'm trying to get ready to go on vacation. On Saturday MM and I are taking off on a week long road trip to Northern California. I'm pretty excited to get away, but I have a ton of stuff to do to get ready. Who knew taking a road trip would be so much work?

Thankfully I have an awesome family. My aunt is coming to stay with the kids while we're gone, so we don't have to worry about them getting to or from school or missing any of their extracurricular activities. My mom is pitching in to help, too, so my aunt doesn't have to do it all alone. Let's hear it for pushing the responsibility onto other people family who rocks!

I don't know if I'll have time to update before we leave but I'll try to stop in and say hello while we're gone.

Monday, February 22, 2010

It's been almost two months since Kay and I started our weight loss challenge. During the 2nd week of January I started counting calories and going to Jazzercise 3x a week. I've been weighing in once a week and updating the ticker on my sidebar with my progress.

So far I've lost just a smidge over 6lbs. Although 6lbs is 6lbs, I can't help but feel frustrated that I haven't lost more. I'm consuming less that 1300 calories a day (for the most part; I adjust on the days I workout) and working out steadily 3x a week. While I don't expect - or want - to lose an extreme amount of weight all at once, I do expect to lose steadily. I lost 3lbs the first week I was doing this. Which means I've lost 3lbs during the last 6 weeks. I'm supposed to be averaging between one and two pounds a week (which is totally healthy and realistic). Obviously I'm off the mark.

The problem is..I don't know why. I'm consuming way less calories and doing way more exercise. Most of my calories have been "good" calories, too. I'm not eating 1300 calories worth of cheeseburgers and french fries each day. Sure, I've slipped up now and again, but not too often. I even gave up drinking coffee and soda. The pounds should be falling off. MM says I'm toning up, but I don't feel like it. Though I haven't been measuring, I don't feel like I've lost any inches. All of my clothes still fit the same.

The worst part is that I don't actually feel any better. I'm still sluggish and tired and I've been having dizzy spells and feeling light-headed. Plus, I just feel..well, fat. Or bloated anyway. I look in the mirror and see the same body from two months ago.

I guess I'm just feeling really discouraged. I'm trying to lose weight the right way. I'm trying to be healthier in what I eat and how I exercise, but the lack of progress is making me want to binge diet or starve myself. Or just say screw it altogether and go back to eating what I want without exercising.

To reach my initial goal, I have to lose 15lbs in a month. That isn't healthy or realistic. Which means I'm not going to make it. I would be ok with that if I was going to come close, but at this rate there's no way I will.

The good news is it sounds like I'm still winning. Even with my slow progress I'm beating Kay Baby, Casee and Scooper. Though really, it's small consolation.

Monday, February 15, 2010

I've seen some pretty sad cases of Plastic Surgery Gone Wrong in Hollywood, but Lara Flynn Boyle has got to be one of the saddest. Over the weekend MM and I watched Baby On Board - which sucked in case you were wondering - and every time LFB had screen time I wanted to cry. WTF did she do to herself?

Here she is before:

Now look at her after:

I don't think her face even moved during the movie. I used to think she was gorgeous, but now? She just makes me sad. There are even worse pictures here. Isn't it awful?

In other news, I'm currently on hold with Verizon to get my username/password for my parental controls reset. When I switched from Time Warner Cable (boo hiss) I signed up for Verizon's online security suite, including parental controls. I loaded it first onto our desktop, and then more recently on our laptops. The way it works is the settings on the main computer (in this case the desktop) automatically transfer to the other computers. So the username/password I set up the parental controls with automatically transfer to my and MM's computers.

Which is fine, except no matter what combination I use it's incorrect. I'm totally locked out of 90% of all websites for "unsafe content". On the one hand I'm thrilled to know it works so well. On the other, I'm just annoyed that I can't visit the sites I want. I'm an adult! Hello.

I hit them up on Live Chat this morning and they reset my password. But when I put it in I get the same "incorrect" message. So I finally decided to call them. Of course I've been on hold now for 27 minutes and still no one has picked up...

ETA: 20 minutes later I'm told I have to uninstall and re-install VISS in order to reset the password. Since I have it on three computers we're going to see if I update the version I have on our desktop if that will fix the problem.

ETA: 20 minutes later I'm still waiting to for it to re-install. If I have to do this on all three computers I'm going to pull my hair out.

ETA: 35 minutes later and I'm still LOCKED OUT. OMFG. Time to call Tech Support again. Save me! 16 minutes on hold and counting....26 minutes and counting...Yay, they picked up. And...now I'm on hold again. 32 minutes and counting...Did a password reset (again) and it didn't work. Now they're going to "figure something else out".

For those of you counting at home, I have now been trying to get my username/password combination from Verizon for my Parental Controls for approximately 3.25 hours. I'm giving it another 5 and then giving up and deleting the whole effing thing.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

I made this for dinner last night and after mentioning it on Twitter and Facebook, several of you asked for the recipe. This actually comes out "The Best of Cooking Light" cookbook. I love this thing. There are some amazing recipes in here and they're all on the light side. They take regular recipes and adapt them so they're more health conscious, which means I can still have meatloaf and mashed potatoes - just a healthier version.

I served this with a mixture of brown and wild rice and green beans.MM and The Girl loved it, but Little Man wasn't too keen on it. Of course LM isn't keen on much besides hot dogs, peanut butter and jelly and ketchup, so take that how you will.

You can stuff the chicken breasts and chill up to 4 hours before cooking.

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients

2 1/2 tablespoons Italian-seasoned breadcrumbs

2 teaspoons grated lemon rind

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 (6-ounce) jar marinated artichoke hearts, drained and chopped

1 (3-ounce) package herbed goat cheese, softened

4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

Cooking spray

I actually couldn't find goat cheese at my local supermarket (and I didn't have time to drive across town to the one that carries it) so I substituted two tablespoons of low-fat sour cream and crumbled low-fat Feta cheese (which I happened to have in the fridge). It changed the flavor profile, but it was delicious just the same.

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375°.

Combine first 6 ingredients; stir well.

Place each chicken breast half between 2 sheets of heavy-duty plastic wrap; pound to 1/4-inch thickness using a meat mallet or rolling pin. Top each breast half with 2 tablespoons cheese mixture; roll up jelly-roll fashion. Tuck in sides; secure each roll with wooden picks.

Heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add chicken to pan, and cook 3 minutes on each side or until browned. Wrap the handle of pan with foil, and bake at 375° for 15 minutes or until chicken is done.

Nutritional Information

Calories:

234 (30% from fat)

Fat:

7.8g (sat 3.5g,mono 1.4g,poly 0.5g)

Protein:

33g

Carbohydrate:

7.2g

Fiber:

1.5g

Cholesterol:

78mg

Iron:

1.6mg

Sodium:

545mg

Calcium:

49mg

Katherine Cobbs, Cooking Light, APRIL 2003

If you decide to make this, stop by and let me know how it turned out.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

I generally don't watch the news, or read about it online. There's just a lot of bad shit in the world and I'd rather not obsess over every bit of it (which I tend to do). But sometimes something is brought to my attention and I just can't get away from it.

In August 2009, Katie Tagle broke up with her boyfriend Stephen Garcia after he allegedly punched her in the face and knocked her out. The two had a son together, Wyatt, who was about 4 months old at the time. In December, Garcia found out Tagle was seeing someone else and freaked out. Since then Garcia continued to threaten the lives both Tagle and her son.

Tagle tried to get a restraining order against him after receiving emails and text messages from Garcia stating he was going to harm Tagle, and/or kill himself and his son. But they were denied.

On Dec. 15, Tagle asked for an emergency restraining order against Garcia, telling Judge Debra Harris in a Joshua Tree courtroom that Garcia had threatened Wyatt.

“He had sent me text messages before that if his son was around certain people … that he would kill him,” Tagle told the judge, according to transcripts of the hearing.

“And that if I wasn’t where I was supposed to be, he’d find me and kill me.”

“What about the threat to shoot you, where did that occur, to hunt you down and shoot you with a gun?” the judge asked.

“That was in a text message, Tagle replied.

When Harris asked for copies of the text messages, Tagle said she had no way of printing them out and her phone was shut off.

The judge denied the emergency order and set a hearing.

Garcia ‘doesn’t pose a threat’

At that hearing, on Jan. 12, Tagle went before Judge David Mazurek in the Joshua Tree courthouse to show cause for a restraining order.

“…On Dec. 31, we were doing our exchange, and he proposed to me, and I said no. He got angry and stole my phone and pushed me down. I made a police report about that,” Tagle told the judge, according to a transcript.

Garcia told the judge the report was “falsely made up.”

Mazurek denied Tagle the restraining order.

“If I grant the restraining order, how do you think that’s going to help with respect to you two being able to raise Wyatt together or work together to make sure Wyatt grows up happy and healthy?” the judge asked, according to the transcripts.

So Garcia has threatened his ex and his child, but the judge wants them to work together to make sure Wyatt grows up happy and healthy. Ok then.

The day after the hearing in Mazurek’s courtroom, Garcia sent a text message telling Tagle to check her e-mail. In it was an anonymous message containing a story called “Necessary Evil.”

The story describes in detail Tagle’s and Garcia’s relationship, from their fights over his video-game addiction, to their breakup, to her new relationship and his failed proposal.

In the end, the story has two endings. In “Happy Ending,” the female character returns to the man.

In “Tragic Ending,” the character takes his son to a lake, puts him to sleep with Benadryl and the baby dies. “He will have a better life with you then (sic) we can give him here,” the man tells God before taking his own life.

Tagle called 9-1-1 after reading the story, and the responding deputy immediately went to the courthouse and obtained an emergency restraining order for her, signed by Mazurek.

However, in Victorville court Jan. 14, Judge Robert Lemkau would not uphold the restraining order and ordered Tagle to immediately give Wyatt to Garcia, as it was the day his scheduled visitation was to begin.

The judge reads this "story" where Garcia basically says "if you don't come back to me I'll kill myself and our son" and DENIES THE RESTRAINING ORDER??? And then demands Tagle give the baby to him to take home? Because that makes ALL KINDS OF SENSE. Especially since the ending is not a happy one.

The bodies of the 25-year-old Garcia, of Pinon Hills, Calif. and his son, Wyatt, were found early Sunday on an isolated dirt trail in the San Bernardino Mountains.

The discovery came after authorities learned that Garcia had taken the boy during a court-ordered visit and threatened to kill him and commit suicide.

But even worse? Pictures were uploaded (I refuse to post the picture here) to Garcia's Facebook account showing him and his son sleeping, along with what appears to be a suicide note. This was just hours after the court hearing.

According to Tagle's father, the judge basically accused her of lying.

Transcripts from that hearing are not yet available, but family and friends who were in the court that day with Tagle said the judge appeared not to have read the evidence she presented, including the “Necessary Evil” story and the emergency restraining order obtained by a sheriff’s deputy.

“Just from the very beginning, he didn’t want to listen,” said Rick Tagle, who was in the courtroom. “He started out by saying, ‘One of you is lying and I think it’s you,’ and pointing at Katie.”

The judge also allegedly warned Tagle there would be consequences for lying.

Lemkau did not respond to an e-mail request for comment; the county does not provide judges’ office telephone numbers.

The following Sunday, when Garcia missed his arranged custody transfer with Tagle, she had to call a deputy to get Wyatt back from Garcia’s house.

Friends say discouraged and frightened by her last appearance in court, she did not seek another restraining order or custody change.

“She was afraid she would go before the judge who called her a liar,” her sister said.

I wonder how he'll live with himself now, knowing he handed that 9 month old baby a death sentence?

This story saddens and sickens me. Not only the loss of such an innocent life, but that the justice system failed so miserably.

It also saddens me because I know there are women out there who do lie about domestic abuse, or exaggerate situations to manipulate things in their favor.